David Letterman spent 33 years hosting what has become an iconic show, but just hours after Letterman said goodbye to The Late Show, CBS wasted no time in kicking David Letterman’s set to the curb.
Sentimental fans gathered outside the Ed Sullivan Theater on Thursday to watch as stagehands unceremoniously crushed and sawed through iconic pieces of the “Late Show” backdrop the day after the final show.
“I can’t believe they’re just demolishing the whole thing. It’s shocking,” said Stephanie Strausz, of Manhattan, who scored a second-row ticket to Wednesday’s star-studded finale.
“It should go in the Smithsonian, not the Dumpster,” she said.
Strausz was one of many “Late Show” lovers who successfully snagged a keepsake from a theater Dumpster that overflowed with red audience seats and bits of the bridges that made up the set behind Letterman’s desk.
More than a dozen fans waited for the workers and security to clear out Thursday evening before descending on the talk-show trash like vultures, scavenging for salvageable relics.
“Show business. They don’t waste much time,” executive producer Rob Burnett said via Instagram, next to a photo he took of the gutted theater.
There were a few things stagehands carefully carried out, including Letterman’s on-air desk — which was covered in bubble wrap and headed for the Smithsonian — a replica of the George Washington Bridge, loaded into a van, and furniture and instruments belonging to band leader Paul Shaffer.
Most of the costumes and some props were sent to a costume warehouse in Yonkers.
